On 8/19/07, Douglas A. Tutty <dtutty@porchlight.ca> wrote:
If you mix with apt-get ...
... This leads to the cruft buildup that
aptitude is suposed to help you prevent.
I remember a thread some time ago that just pointed out not to mix apt-get
with aptitude.
The other problem is this. Install package A. Aptitude brings in
package B to meet a dependancy. Over time, you get attached to package
B in its own right. Later, either package A changes and doesn't need B
or you remove A. If you haven't told aptitude that you want to keep B,
it will go ahead and remove it too.
In interactive mode, you get a detailed preview (with reasons) of what
aptitude wants to do. You can then edit that preview to fine-tune it
before telling aptitude to go ahead. It really tries to protect you
from yourself without preventing you from shooting yourself in the foot
if that is really what you want to do.
Yeah, I had this once - don't know anymore which package - but from the
command line aptitude wanted to remove a lot that I wanted to keep. So I
had to enter interactive mode and put that stuff on hold.
Greetings, Manon.